West Coast Heroin Now Comes With Free Botulism

Bad news for West Coast junkies (is there really any other kind of news for junkies?): Two cases of suspected botulism in Seattle have been blamed on tainted black tar heroin, in addition to four recently in Texas, according to the Los Angeles Times. It's especially bad because the only real way to find out your stash is tainted is to contract botulism!

"There is no way for a person on the street to tell if black tar heroin is contaminated, nor any way to clean it to make it safe," Jeff Duchin, chief of communicable disease epidemiology for the Seattle and King County Public Health Department, said in a statement.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, symptoms of botulism include "Breathing difficulty that may lead to respiratory failure, difficulty swallowing and speaking, double vision, nausea, vomiting, weakness with paralysis (equal on both sides of the body)" and more. Add those to the general shittiness that comes with being a junkie and, well, the heroin scene just got a lot worse.